Great Lakes Brewery

Great Lakes Brewing Company caused a lot of noise in the Ohio area recently. They have been making an oyster stout for years, but until recently it was only in their brew pub and did not affect the kashrut of their main brewery where their bottled beers are made. (Kegs are another story beyond the scope of this blog as they may have come from the main brewery or the brew pub, depending on which beer). This past summer they made the oyster stout in the main brewery and that made everyone balk at their beer. That is actually what caused me to start looking into breweries in the first place. This is a touchy subject, but I decided to address it to give everyone the information I have.

Until recently, Great Lakes' unflavored beer was acceptable by most standards (including the local organization from my understanding) before their oyster stout in the main brewery. Since then, more information has been gathered to determine it's status. The details for the oyster beer is that the amount of oyster they used was less than 1/60th of the vat, but since it's there for the taste, the beer IS still 100% TREIF. However, since the amount of oyster is under 1/60th though, it's still null regarding the VESSELS it was made in and doesn't make the VESSELS treif.

Therefore, after looking into it, some kashrut agencies say their non-flavored beers that are bottled are still kosher. However, others firmly state that once a brewery is known to produce non-kosher beers, the only way to be certain that any beer they make is kosher is to have official kosher supervision in the brewery. GLBC's situation really gets to the heart of the beer kashrut conundrum. It shows that in the microbrewery industry, even with a large microbrewery such as GLBC, standards that have been in place for years that allowed an assumption regarding kashrut, can be changed in an instant. Yet in many situations, even with the change the unflavored beers are still kosher.

This is a tricky one, so ask your local Rabbi before purchasing. If they say it's OK, I highly suggest their unflavored beers. They are solid and consistently good.